8-Way Desktop Comparison On Ubuntu 13.10 Linux

Up this Saturday morning on Phoronix are some OpenGL/gaming performance benchmarks of eight different desktop environments currently available from the Ubuntu 13.10 "Saucy Salamander" package archive when using Intel Core i7 "Haswell" graphics with the Linux 3.10 kernel and Mesa 9.2.

The results today are an updated look at the Ubuntu 13.04 Desktop Gaming Performance Comparison. There's much work ahead for Ubuntu 13.10 with new kernel/driver versions still ahead plus major updates to the packaged desktop environment options, but for those curious where things are at with the Ubuntu 13.10 development state as of 21 June, here's some benchmarks.

From the Core i7 4770K with Intel HD Graphics 4600, the Unity 7.0.0, Xfce 4.10, KDE 4.10.4, GNOME Shell 3.8.3, LXDE 0.5.12, Openbox 3.5.0, and Razor-Qt 0.5.2 desktop environments were tested when running a variety of OpenGL benchmarks. Each desktop was left in its stock/packaged configuration though for KDE's KWin the option to disable window effects on fullscreen windows was utilized.

The full system/hardware details, system logs, and results in full for this benchmarking can be found in 1306213-SO-DESKTOPLI17. Embedded below is just a preview.

KDE and GNOME Shell tended to be the slowest gaming desktops, but overall the results tend to be close with modern Linux OpenGL graphics drivers when comparing the different Linux desktop options. Be sure to see the full results on OpenBenchmarking.org. A more thorough comparison with various graphics drivers will come when the next round of major desktop stable versions are released plus the Ubuntu 13.10 stable release on approach.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.